The Thesis

There is a type of person who changes an industry not by designing its best product but by building the factory that makes the best products possible. Bryan Ansell was that person for miniature wargaming.

Born in Nottingham in 1955, Ansell spent his career at the intersection of manufacturing, sculpture, and game design. He co-founded Asgard Miniatures in 1976, partnered with Games Workshop to create Citadel Miniatures in 1978, designed the sci-fi skirmish game Laserburn in 1980, co-designed the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 1983, and eventually became Managing Director and majority owner of Games Workshop itself. When he left in 1991, the company he shaped would go on to become the most commercially dominant force in tabletop gaming history.

But this is a ranking of game designers, not business executives. And that distinction matters enormously for Ansell’s score. His design credits are real — Laserburn introduced concepts like power armor and bolt guns that became the DNA of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and his co-design work on WFB first edition helped establish faction-specific mechanics that defined the franchise. But Rick Priestley and Richard Halliwell were equal co-designers on Warhammer, and Priestley alone designed Rogue Trader. Ansell’s genius was recognizing what his designers could build, giving them the resources to build it, and turning that work into a global empire.

The foundation is real. The cathedral belongs to other hands.

Invention — 4: “Added a Room”

Laserburn (1980) was a competent sci-fi skirmish game whose conceptual vocabulary — power armor, bolt guns, techno-feudalism, a decaying galactic empire — seeded the ideas that Rick Priestley would later develop into Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Ansell’s co-design contributions to Warhammer Fantasy Battle first edition helped establish faction-specific mechanics, particularly the Chaos faction’s corruption rules and the Orc horde-warfare systems. The all-D6 design philosophy he championed became a signature of the Warhammer system.

Real contributions that mattered. But Priestley and Halliwell deserve equal or greater credit for the mechanical architecture of Warhammer, and Priestley alone designed Rogue Trader. Not a 5 because no solo-designed mechanic became a category-defining innovation. Not a 3 because Laserburn genuinely pioneered ideas that became the DNA of a multi-billion-dollar franchise.

Architecture — 3: “Functional but Forgettable”

Laserburn worked as a sci-fi skirmish system but never achieved widespread play beyond a dedicated niche. Imperial Commander expanded on it competently. Ansell’s co-design credit on WFB first edition matters, but subsequent editions — primarily designed by Priestley and others — are what made the architecture endure across decades. Confrontation and Necromunda carry his co-design credit alongside Priestley and Nigel Stillman, but the available record doesn’t clarify his specific mechanical contributions.

The structures Ansell built were starting points, not finished cathedrals. Not a 4 because none of his sole-credit designs demonstrated lasting architectural elegance. Not a 2 because Laserburn did function as a coherent system and the ideas embedded in it proved structurally sound enough for others to build on.

Mastery — 3: “Competent”

Two to three games designed as primary author (Laserburn, Imperial Commander), plus co-design credits on Warhammer Fantasy Battle first edition, Confrontation, and Necromunda. Active design window roughly 1980 to 1991 — about a decade before his career shifted entirely to business leadership and then to Wargames Foundry’s manufacturing focus.

The design output is too thin to evaluate sustained craft development. What exists shows competence and strategic design thinking — Ansell understood what a game needed to accomplish and could contribute meaningfully to the design conversation. But the portfolio lacks the breadth, the iterative refinement, and the sustained output that higher mastery scores require. He was a capable designer who chose to become an industrialist. The choice was probably the right one for the hobby.

The Legacy

Bryan Ansell died on December 30, 2023, at the age of sixty-eight. The obituaries rightly called him a co-creator of Warhammer and a pioneer of the miniature wargaming industry. Both descriptions are accurate. Neither tells the whole story.

The whole story is that Ansell saw what tabletop gaming could become before almost anyone else did. He saw that miniatures needed manufacturing at scale. He saw that rules systems needed commercial infrastructure. He saw that designers like Rick Priestley and Richard Halliwell needed a company that could turn their ideas into products that reached hundreds of thousands of players. And he built that company.

His design score is modest because this is a design ranking, and Ansell’s design portfolio is thin. But the ranking itself would look profoundly different without him. Half the designers who score higher owe something to the industry he helped build, the manufacturing pipelines he established, and the commercial proof-of-concept he provided. The foundation is always scored lower than the cathedral. That doesn’t mean the cathedral would exist without it.

Total: 13 points. Year: 1980.

FINAL SCORE: Invention 4 + Architecture 3 + Mastery 3 + Adjustments 3 = 13/41 (1980)

His design score is modest because this is a design ranking, and Ansell’s design portfolio is thin. But the ranking itself would look profoundly different without him. Half the designers who score higher owe something to the industry he helped build, the manufacturing pipelines he established, and the commercial proof-of-concept he provided. The foundation is always scored lower than the cathedral. That doesn’t mean the cathedral would exist without it.